


Many Happy Returns

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 21:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12240942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: Evie forgets Mal's birthday.





	Many Happy Returns

**Author's Note:**

> from an anonymous request on tumblr

Evie awoke to a head full of numbers.  Lonnie at 3:00.  Lonnie’s friend at 2:30. Seven dollars for new sewing machine needles.  Thirty-four, twenty-six, thirty-six, twenty-seven, thirty-seven, thirty-five; a pair of measurements that Evie couldn’t remember who they belonged to and in what order, for that matter. Eight, the hour she was waking up on that Saturday which already seemed far too late for the busy day ahead of her and the many, many things she had on her schedule.  Oh  _gosh_ , she had so much to do.  
  
Mal awoke nearly an hour later with only one number in her head—seventeen. As in seventeen years old.  Her first birthday in Auradon.  Birthdays on The Isle were not a thing Mal held in very high regard.  Each year without fail her mother would wave her away uninterestedly, claiming it couldn’t be her birthday because her birthday was just last year (then each year without fail, snort to herself and say she learned that from “that old bat Mother Gothel”).  Jay would always swipe something from his father’s store for her birthday present, some trinket or another resting lazily on a top shelf whose absence Jafar would never notice. When Carlos came into her life he’d utter timid little happy birthdays mainly out of fear, and as the two became vaguely closer he’d make childishly-scrawled cards in attempts to appeal to her artistic side.  
  
And then there was Evie.  Evie who had been around the least amount of time for Mal’s birthdays but still made the few she had to her name stick out very clearly in Mal’s mind. There was little to be done on The Isle in terms of celebration and gift-giving, but like Evie did in every other aspect of her life, she found a way.

First it was the pencil case, which Evie refurbished out of an old blue clutch and always used to hold the pencils for coloring in all her fashion sketches.  After moving them to an old tin can she’d found rolling down the street, Evie gifted the pencil case to her first and newest best friend. The next birthday wasn’t so much accompanied by a gift as it was with a gesture, Evie meeting Mal with a bouquet of flowers in hand, flowers she’d found by scouring their part of The Isle and gave to Mal under the pretense that their many vivid colors would help inspire her artwork.  The flowers had died, of course, but the thought stayed fiercely with Mal all the way to Auradon.  And if Evie could manage that feat with the meager offerings on The Isle of the Lost, there was no telling what kind of birthday extravaganza she could pull off with all the many opportunities in the royal kingdom.  
  
So color Mal confused when she sat up in bed and saw Evie at the door, dressed for the day and hurriedly pulling her heels on one-handed while she opened the door with the other.  
  
“Mal!  Good morning.  You would not  _believe_  everything I have to do today, I feel like I’m already behind when I haven’t even started. I’m heading to the dining hall real fast for breakfast, okay?  I’ll see you down there.”  
  
And just like that, Evie grabbed her purse off the top of the dresser and ducked out the door, the stark rap of it all but slamming shut behind her startling Mal with a little jump.  Unlike Evie, Mal found herself in no rush that morning, and was honestly in a bit of a daze.  Getting down to the dining room, her eyes instantly scanned for Evie but couldn’t find her right away among the crowd.  Not even from the improved vantage point that came from Jay sneaking up behind her, picking her up, and spinning her around.  
  
“Happy birthday, Mal!” he said.  
  
She recognized the laughter of Carlos and Jane as the world whipped around her, but Jay had dropped her on her feet soon enough, where she took a second to steady herself.  
  
“…Okay, never do that again,” she laughed, winded.  
  
“Happy birthday,” Carlos grinned, putting an arm around her.  
  
“Happy birthday!” Jane’s smile was delightful as always.  
  
“Thanks, guys,” Mal said sincerely.  "Uh, where’s Evie?“  
  
“Zoomed in and zoomed out,” Carlos led them all to the VKs table.  
  
“She’s got a lot to do today,” Jane knowingly said.  
  
Mal sat down, frowning.  
  
“So I’ve heard…”  
  
After breakfast (waffles topped with strawberries, a treat arranged by Jane, bless her heart), Mal made a pit stop in the dorm room and caught the tail end of her best friend.  
  
“E!” Mal was surprised to be lucky enough to run into her, the way Evie had apparently been zipping around campus.  
  
She was pulling three garment bags out of the closet, carrying two in one hand and one in the other.  
  
“Hey, Mal,” Evie smiled her dazzling smile at her.  "Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t meet you for breakfast like I said I would, I decided to just eat on the run.  I said I’d have these outfits delivered before eleven, and it’s already ten-thirty, so…“  
  
She moved with purpose across the room, strictly keeping to her schedule.  
  
“Could you give me a hand with the door?” she asked.  
  
Mal blinked at her for a second or two.  Was she really about to take off again without a single acknowledgment of what day it was?  
  
“Evie…” Mal started.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
Mal hesitated.  Shook her head.  Reached around Evie and opened the door.  
  
“…Nothing.”  
  
“Oh.  Okay.  Well, after I drop these off I need to head out and buy more sewing needles, but I’ll definitely be back around two to get started on some fittings, so I’ll be here in the dorm if you need me.”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
“Bye!”  
  
Evie went out into the hallway, and Mal closed the door.  
  
Wait, maybe that was it.  Heading out to buy more sewing needles?  A clever excuse for Evie to sneak away and gather up cake and presents?  It sounded like a completely Evie thing to do.  Maybe that was it.  Mal just needed to wait.  
  
Pulling up the memory of those Isle flowers and the sentiment they had held within them, Mal busied herself with drawing in between her waiting, losing track of time and so fiercely lost in the world of her sketchbook that the knocking at her door jolted her like being yanked out of sleep.  
  
“It’s open,” she said.  
  
“Mal?” Lonnie poked her head in, unsure if that was really the voice she had heard.  "Mal!  Happy birthday!“   
  
"Thank you, Lonnie,” Mal smiled, setting her pencil down beside her on the bed.  
  
Lonnie came further into the room.  
  
“What are you doing in here by yourself?  Where’s Evie?”  
  
Mal’s smile faded into a grimmer one.  
  
“Hard to keep track of her today,” she said simply.   
  
“I’m looking for her, one of my friends had a fitting set up for 2:30 but she’s trying to change the time.”  
  
“I’ll let Evie know if I see her.”  
  
Lonnie couldn’t help but notice how Mal said “if” and not “when”.  
  
Mal had later looked out the window at just the right time to see Evie returning to campus, and promptly left the room, making it easier on Evie to sneak all the birthday fixings inside.  She went to the boys’ dorm, knocking and then going inside to see Jay and Carlos locked in one of their video games.  
  
“Birthday girl!” Dude shouted at her when she walked in, distracting Carlos long enough for Jay to virtually pummel him and win the match.  
  
Warm birthday wishes all around, but still an afternoon spectating and joining in games in the company of the boys didn’t feel quite the same without a warm birthday wish from Evie.  She wondered when she should head back over to her own dorm, wondered if she had given Evie enough time to set up.  Somewhere in between kicking Jay’s butt and ignoring Dude’s pleas of tummy scratches in celebration of his “un-birthday”, Mal again lost track of the time.  The sun was beginning to set when a knock sent Carlos to the door, opening it to find Audrey.  
  
“Hi guys, I—Mal?” she leaned around Carlos to find her sitting on the floor with Jay.  "Hey, happy birthday.  Good thing I found you here, Ben sends for you guys.“  
  
"What did you do now?” Jay teased Mal.  
  
She gave him a light shove and stood up, leaving him to turn off the tv.  
  
“We get sent for now?  How official,” she said.  
  
After Carlos gave a goodbye to Dude the three followed Audrey through the halls of Auradon Prep, where a confused frown beset Mal when she realized they were heading nowhere near the king’s office.  The question didn’t even get a chance to leave her mouth when Audrey came to a stop in front of what Mal now recognized as the doors to the campus rec room, and with a flourish that only a princess could pull off, she threw the doors wide.  
  
“Surprise!!” rose a chorus of Audrey, Jay, Carlos, and over a dozen kids inside the rec room.  
  
Mal gasped at the sight of the purple streamers and balloons in the air, ushered inside by Audrey and becoming enveloped in music beginning to play and the smell of food wafting around enticingly.  Here it was, just like Mal thought it would be.  A surprise party with cake on the table, a pile of presents in the corner, and Evie’s name written all over it.    
  
Only, no Evie.  
  
There was Lonnie, Jane, Doug, Chad (amazingly), other AKs, and Ben, but no familiar blue standing out within the room.  
  
“Hey Mal, I hope you had a great day,” Ben came forward and told her.  
  
Mal couldn’t say no, not after the sincere birthday greetings, the smiles, the afternoon of secretly going easy on the boys in their games because it was her birthday and she felt like being nice.  Not after seeing the luscious chocolate cake and a gift from every kid waiting for her nearby.  By all accounts, her day  _was_  great.  
  
But it felt like it could’ve been so much more.

* * *

It was already dark outside when Evie’s day slowed down enough for her to fit in her rescheduled appointment with Lonnie’s friend Ming.  
  
“I’m sorry for making you do this so late,” Ming apologized as Evie went around with her measuring tape.  
  
“Not at all, it actually gave me time for a little break until three,” Evie kindly said.  
  
She stepped back and grabbed a notebook, jotting down what she’d take in here, shorten there.  
  
“It sounds like you needed it.”  
  
“Yeah, busy day.”  
  
Evie took up her measuring tape again.  
  
“I’ll bet, running all over campus.  Lonnie spent forever trying to find you before the party.”  
  
“Party?” Evie’s eyes lit up excitedly.  "What party?“  
  
Ming looked at her blankly.  
  
"You know, the surprise party everyone planned this morning.  For Mal’s birthday.”  
  
Evie froze.  Almost went numb, as a matter of fact.  
  
“…Mal’s birthday?” she repeated in something just a short step above a whisper.  
  
“I know Lonnie was trying to get ahold of you when she couldn’t find you about rescheduling.”  
  
Like the professional she was, Evie unthawed her body just long enough to finish making her measurements on Ming’s dress, but every other part of her still tingled with that numbness.  
  
“All done,” she forced a smile and masterfully kept her voice from shaking, giving Ming a timeframe on her alterations and seeing her out before rushing back into the dorm room and whipping out her cell phone.  
  
On silent.  She turned it on silent before bed every night and was so quick to get a jump on her day that she never stopped to switch the sound back on and never stopped to even glance at her phone until now.  Missed calls and texts from Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Jane, Ben.  All of them about party plans.  All of them about Mal’s birthday.  Gleaning that everyone was in the rec room from the quick and frantic scan she’d taken through her messages, that’s where Evie raced.  
  
What was she doing?  She had no birthday present, no card, only an ashamed “happy birthday” at her disposal.  But still, it had to be better than nothing. Better than the nothing she’d given Mal  _all day long_.  With her packed schedule she spent her whole Saturday trying to be early, and here, she ended up being too late.  The music had stopped, the cake was gone, everyone was cleaning up.  
  
“Where’s Mal??” she desperately asked, storming right into the middle of the room.  
  
“…Where were  _you_??” Carlos countered right back, streamers wrapped around his arm.  
  
“I…I just  _completely_  forgot today was her birthday!” Evie practically shouted, so flustered and upset.  "Today, and yesterday, and the day before, I was just so busy with 4 Hearts things that I…where’s Mal??“  
  
She dropped the fumbling for excuses and repeated her question.  
  
"Already gone,” Ben sadly told her.  
  
“We guessed she was headed back to your guys’ room,” Jay added.  
  
“Maybe you just missed her,” Jane hopefully said.  
  
Maybe she did indeed.  Evie’s day was one big race, and here she was on the home stretch back across the length of the campus and to the dorm.  But nothing at the finish line.  The room was  _almost_  just how she’d left it moments ago, empty, but with the new addition of Mal’s gifts sitting on the desk. No sign of Mal, though.  She had been here, she’d just decided not to stay.  
  
Evie would gladly screw up a hundred dresses if it meant taking back this mistake.

* * *

Mal wasn’t the type for long walks, but tonight her feet didn’t want to stay still, and they certainly didn’t want to stay still in the dorm.  Plus, it was a nice night. Weather-wise, at least.  Seventeen.  Her first birthday in Auradon.  She supposed that after sixteen years on The Isle, “Not a Complete Disaster” was the best she was ever going to get on her birthdays.  She did start to grow tired, though, and eventually turned tail back inside the school.  The hallways were silent, just Mal’s footsteps muffled on the carpet, and when she reached her room she saw the darkness spilling out from the crack underneath the door.  
  
A misleading darkness, for when she stepped inside, the room was bathed in the oh-so-soft glow of candlelight.  
  
“…Happy birthday, Mal,” Evie’s soft voice drifted from where she sat at the foot of her bed.  
  
Mal closed the door behind her, not taking her eyes off of Evie, who she’d seen right away in the fiery glow.  Only when a moment of awkward silence passed between them did Mal look away, glancing aloofly to the side.  
  
“…Thanks,” she mumbled.  
  
Evie slowly stood up.  
  
“…M, I am  _so_ sorry.  I didn’t mean to forget your birthday.  I just got caught up in other things, but…” she sounded on the verge of tears.  "…But none of that should have been more important than you.“  
  
Mal shook her head and shrugged.  
  
"People forget birthdays.  It happens.  You have your own life.  It was nice, Jane arranged breakfast, I played video games with Jay and Carlos, there was a party, I ate cake, unwrapped presents.  It was nice.”  
  
“…I didn’t even get you a real present,” Evie said sorrowfully.  
  
Mal just shrugged again, a little uncomfortable.  She never thought she’d be any kind of uncomfortable around Evie.  
  
“It’s okay.”  
  
“It’s not.”   
  
Evie slowly went to her nightstand, stooping over and turning on her speaker, letting soft music whisper through the room before going to stand in front of Mal. Evie’s eyes shone so sadly in the candlelight.  
  
“E, you really don’t have to—”  
  
“I don’t have a real present for you, Mal, and I’m so sorry for everything that happened today, but…something is better than nothing.  Shall we?”  
  
She held out her hand in a manner that Mal had seen before, a manner that made her unable to hold off the tiniest of smiles.  
  
“…We shall.”  
  
She took Evie’s hand, and Evie pulled her in, the two instantly starting to sway to the tune of the music.  
  
“…I can’t believe I forgot my best friend’s birthday.”  
  
“I survived.”  
  
“M, you don’t have to put up a front for me. If you want to cry, you can,” Evie tried to joke.  
  
“Not likely,” Mal chuckled.  
  
The music stayed the same, but things started to change.  Evie’s hand tightening around Mal’s.  Her arm pulling her in even closer by the waist.  Her forehead gently coming to rest on Mal’s.  Mal was suddenly very aware of her heart beginning to race, hammering in her eardrums.  
  
“…Evie?  What are you—”  
  
Evie suddenly lifted her head, holding it high and proud again.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she quickly said, looking embarrassed.  
  
“…Don’t be sorry, I just…”  
  
Evie took the opportunity to step back and gently twirl Mal, spinning her once before letting her settle back in her arms.  The song stopped.  And so did their dancing.  Then the next song began, but still they remained stopped.  Evie let Mal’s hand drop and her hold very slowly found its way around Mal’s waist.  Mal couldn’t believe she could still hear the low music over the drumming in her chest and ears.  
  
“M?”  
  
Mal found herself staring too intently at Evie’s lips.  
  
“…Yeah?”  
  
“…What did you wish for when you blew out the candles?”  
  
Neither of them was sure who started to lean in first, both were just inexplicably drawn closer to each other as if by the force of magnets.  And Mal watched Evie’s lips for every word.  
  
“…You,” she answered.  
  
Evie nodded slowly, almost to herself, before tilting her head to bring those lips close to Mal’s ear.  
  
“Close your eyes,” she whispered.  
  
Mal did, disappointed at losing the sight of Evie in the candle’s glow but in no position to argue with her.  She made one more silent wish to herself.  
  
And then Evie kissed her.  
  
And the thudding in her ears was no more, for Mal swore her heart stopped.  
  
Her fingers went up in Evie’s hair, holding her, and Evie pressed closer to Mal with a deeper kiss.  Mal was sweet with chocolate, allowing Evie taste after taste, until the brief silence from that second song ending had them breaking away to look into each other’s eyes.  
  
“…Happy birthday,” Evie nuzzled the perfect little nose in front of her.  Mal had to stop her breath from catching.  
  
So this was the start of seventeen.    
  
Mal had no doubt.  
  
It was greater than all the pencil cases and island flowers in the world combined.


End file.
